Second Harvest hosts more than 80 locations this Summer

Across Central Florida, students eagerly look forward to summer vacation, but for many children from low income families, summertime means losing access to school cafeterias and the nutritious well-balanced meals they regularly receive.

During summer, many struggling families have to spend more money on food and make tougher household budgetary decisions. The USDA Summer Food Service Program is designed to help children and families by providing a seamless nutritional continuum bridging the seasonal gap in the National School Lunch Program.

For the eight consecutive year, Second Harvest Food Bank will seamlessly transition from its Kids Cafe Afternoon Meal Program (AMP) to The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The summer program allows us to provide free, nutritious, prepared meals to children ages 18 and under while school cafeterias are closed. The program will operate for a total of 46 days and serve approximately 90 locations.

Last summer’s mobile feeding pilot program will now be expanded to cover seven distinct routes, serving children in hard to reach areas and dishing out hot meals from the retrofitted trailer’s drop down, side window. Since becoming sponsors in 2008, Second Harvest Food Bank, in partnership with over 100 sites, has served more than 580,000 meals. This summer, breakfasts, lunches and healthy snacks will be available daily at approximately 90 locations in four counties.

Learn more about our Summer Food Service Program.